Digital BW, The Print

Hello All;

I received the bottle of MIS Gloss Optimizer (GLOP) this past 
Thursday and have some results to report that anyone using UC inks 
on RC papers will find very interesting.

The first tests were done with MIS UC-clones in a 7600, with Eboni 
K. First tests indicate that the GLOP is NOT compatible with EBONI-
it not only doesn't help it in any way, but a heavy enough coat 
causes the ink to bead and craze and generally look very ugly.  I 
then took out the Eboni and replaced it with MIS Universal K, an ink 
I was not very pleased with when I first tried it. I will probably 
wind up using with MIS PK. As my final solution for RC papers. 

The first quick test I did was to put some in a cheap ($20.00) 
Badger air brush and spray it on a couple different papers, just to 
see if it was worth the effort to proceed.  Results: GLOP does less 
than nothing for matte papers-it actually hurts the DmaX a bit. On 
semi-matte RC paper, with the eboni ink, any area that was pure 
Eboni was basically un-affected with a light coat, but any other 
area showed an increase in Dmax, an major improvement in the clarity 
and depth of the image tones, and not even a hint of bronzing or 
differential glossing of the surface. Definitely worth pursuing 
further!

I then pulled out the old 1270, flushed the K head with ammonia 
window cleaner (Windex) and put a virgin cart filled with GLOP in it.
It took three cleaning cycles to get the old junker giving a clean 
nozzles test (you have to do it on glossy paper so you can see the 
change in reflectivity of the GLOP). I then set in on BO did a 
print, and discovered that ....the printer was useless. The C and M 
nozzles that had been misfiring in color would shut off in BO.

Well, 'in for a penny, in for a pound' I thought, and repeated the 
procedure with my 1280, which up until now has had nothing but dyes 
in it, and has very little wear. The nozzle check was good the first 
time, so I overprinted several pages of test images I had prepared 
the night before. The papers I tested were:

Epson Premium Glossy
Ilford Classic Gloss
Epson Premium Semi-matte-250
Proof-line Photo glossy DP
Oriental Graphica Lustre
Proof-line Semi-matte/DP
Proof-line Photo Lustre

The 'image' was a simple 100% black rectangle applied through 
the 'color controls' setting with only the black ink, at 1440 dpi 
and high speed on.

Results:

Glossy papers: The Epson PGPP and the PL glossy respond essentially 
the same way: a single average coat completely eliminated any hint 
of bronzing, and kicked up the Dmax and color saturation enough to 
make it worth the effort. One coat however did not even out the 
gloss, there was still an obvious difference between lightly inked 
highlights and heavier areas. It took a second pass through the 
printer to achieve even gloss, though I'm hard pressed to see any 
real improvement otherwise.
On these two papers and the semi-mattes, the GLOP dried as quickly 
as ink would, so running them through a second time was not a 
problem. The GLOP also reduced the overall shine of the paper 
considerably, to more of a smooth semi-gloss that looks much closer 
to air-dried Fiber-Based paper than anything else I've seen so far. 
This was especially true of the Epson PGPP

The Ilford Classic Glossy takes a long time (days) to really dry 
out, so waiting 12 hrs before coating it may not have been enough 
for a fair test. This paper takes UC inks without any bronzing at 
all, but the surface remains fragile even after ti has dried. When I 
cotaed it, the coating showed un-evenness in the form of lines 
parallel to print head travel, even though none of the other papers 
had that problem at the same settings. A heavier coating on the 
other half of the test sheet did not help much, and the entire sheet 
showed roller and pizza-wheel marks. Perhaps this would work in a 
wide-format printer where ther are no rollers after the head, but 
with the smaller printers I'm not optimistic. Too bad, since this 
kind of paper gets the best longevity ratings in the RC category.

The Semi-matte/Lustre papers also responded similarly to each other 
as a group: They coated evenly with only one coat, gained in DMAX, 
color saturation and depth of tone, no longer showed any hint of 
bronzing, the gloss was perfectly even for all of them. In this 
case, instead of reducing the shine, the GLOP increased it, to the 
point that the only real difference between the semi-mattes and the 
glossies was a bit more 'tooth' in the former. And of course the 
second coat needed for the glossy paper. Of the four I tested, I 
preferred the final look of the Proof-Line and Epson semi-mattes-
Epson has the smoothest texture of the group, but the Proof-Line 
appears to give the best dmax, but the difference is subtle on both 
counts. As I don't have a densitometer I can't verify subtle Dmax 
differences, and I'm not sure I would even bother with the Universal 
K ink. With the coating it becomes almost acceptable, but I expect 
either Epson or MIS Photo K to be much better.

 The Proof-Line papers are part of some sample-packs from Adventure 
Cam Photo that I'm testing. At first blush they seem to be a very 
respectable group of papers, though I need to do more comparisons to 
really decide if any of them will replace what I'm currently using. 
If I can find a way to apply GLOP to a wide-format print with-out 
buying a third large printer, the PL semi-matte may become my medium 
of choice for the large display prints I need for my clients. 
Coated, and properly profiled, the overall look of the paper would 
be indistinguishable from the Fuji Lustre RA paper I used until 6 
months ago. 

So, to summarize: yes, despite speculation to the contrary, it works 
as an overcoat for glossy and particularly lustre papers, and it is 
well worth doing if you have a way to do it. Even spraying it on was 
relatively easy-it doesn't stink (though I would still avoid 
breathing it) and it is fairly easy to get a fine, even coat, at 
least with the model-maker's airbrush I used.

Now I'm looking for a large format GLOP solution

Steven Karafyllakis

http://www.stevekphoto.com